Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
I believe that Lindberg got into the HO market by purchasing the assets of Revell, who made the switcher about 1957. So this switcher is really a 1957 technology model. Repowering would require obtaining a drive train to go along with a new motor. The belt system just never made the units quiet or smooth. A company by the name of Lindsay built a SW switcher about the same time that Revell came out with their models. The Lindsay drive is a beauty and very smooth. I would think that you could repower with a Lindsay chassis, but the Lindsay body is better than the Revell so you would really just be spinning your wheels. Athearn makes a great running little switcher similar to the Lindberg that can be bought for $5-10 used and will run reliably for the next 50 years. I would just clean up the Lindberg, get it to run as good as you could, and enjoy your model even with its quirks. For price and quality you just can't beat Athearn and if you enjoy having diesel locomotives without the expense of the more highly detailed models the Athearn engines in the blue boxes will give you hours of enjoyable operation at a very low cost. All wheels are powered on Athearn diesels and all wheels pick up current so they run quite nicely right out of the box and will pull more cars than you probably would have a layout to handle. After making the above statement regarding Revell and thinking further about the Revell model the Revell was a SW-7 that had all 8 wheels powered, not a great system, but it worked. The Lindberg model is an SW-1. I would swear that Lindberg either purchased the dies for this engine or picked up the drive train from another manufacturer. At the time that the belt drive came out on the SW-1 a couple of other manufacturers had been using the same design to power their diesels. Can anyone shed any more light on the history of the SW-1. I believe that after Revell got out of the HO model train business that some of their products were offered by another manufacturer. Somewhere in this scheme of things is Lionel HO, which might have been the company that also used a spring drive on some of their models. Revell-Lionel????
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag

Update Reply

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Model Railroader Newsletter See all

Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!

Subscriber & Member Login

Edit post

Post Body

Tags (Optional)

Subscriber & Member Login

Users Online

Search the Community